Friday, September 21, 2012

HBI was pleased to play an important role over the last two years in
the completion of a comprehensive historic structure report for the Parish of
All Saints, Ashmont—an architecturally significant church in Boston’s
Dorchester neighborhood.

As the first church design by noted Gothic Revival Architect Ralph
Adams Cram and the first building on which he and his firm partner Bertram
Grosvenor Goodhue collaborated, All Saints has long enjoyed a certain amount of
prestige in architectural history and historic preservation circles.

Cram maintained an association with his first building throughout
most of his long career, enlisting the finest craftspeople of the time to
embellish the structure with additions, furnishings, and art. The church is
widely considered to be a prototype for American church building in the Gothic
Revival style in the 20th century. As the building’s National Register
of Historic Places nomination form notes:

All Saints Church…has considerable and long-recognized
significance as the earliest work of a major architectural style, the Modern
Gothic. The church’s construction over a nearly forty-year span also reflects
the evolution of Cram’s theory and style; finally, its interior sculpture and
ornament represent a high point in American interior church design.

The recent historic
structure report completed by John G. Waite Associates, Architects (JGWA) in
March of 2012, is breathtaking in its level of detail and thoroughness.
Weighing in at almost 450 pages plus an additional 375 pages in appendices, the
report contains a thorough history of the design, construction, and evolution of
the church building and later Parish House wing. It provides extremely thorough
existing conditions reports for the entire complex, an analysis of the stained
glass windows, as well as assessments of more mundane items such as the
heating, plumbing, electrical and other building systems. Even the church’s two
organs were studied and evaluated as part of the process by noted organ
consultant, Jonathan Ambrosino.

In
coordination with the foundation that funded the report, HBI Project Manager
Jen Mecca managed the process of developing the scope of the study, soliciting
proposals from architectural firms to carry it out, and then helping to oversee
its preparation. One of the more interesting tasks Jen completed was
transcribing Cram’s original carpenter work specifications for the building,
which are housed in the Boston Public Library and which yielded, among other
fascinating information, much detail about original species of wood used for
structural and finish details and even the size of nails, nuts, and bolts.

Over
the years, Cram’s importance and the significance of All Saints, Ashmont have
been increasingly recognized and celebrated. Today it can be stated that All
Saints is architecturally one of the most significant religious buildings of
its period constructed in the United States. Because of this national
significance, it should be recognized as a National Historic Landmark by the
U.S. Department of the Interior.

Of
course, these reports are most valuable when they lead to restoration and
preservation of the buildings they evaluate, and that is what is happening at
All Saints. JGWA was retained by the Parish for additional study and design work
and is far along in scoping and designing a comprehensive exterior and interior
restoration of the building.

A
construction management firm has been hired to complete a scope of
pre-construction services, leading to actual construction beginning in the spring
of 2013. Fundraising in support of the project is ongoing, with major
foundation and individual contributions committed and a wider capital campaign
to be launched this fall. As the project
progresses, updates will be posted on the Parish website at www.allsaints.net.

HBI
has a long record of providing technical and financial assistance to religious
congregations with historic buildings through the Steeples Project and other
targeted projects, and was honored to provide support for this critical
planning work on one Boston’s most architecturally significant religious
structures.